


a subset of sadness (guilt)

by fate-motif (Jo_Girard)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Post-Akumatization, Spoilers: Season 2 Episode 6 - Robostus, [uses the markov tag on AO3] first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 21:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12896955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jo_Girard/pseuds/fate-motif
Summary: (SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 EPISODE 6: ROBOSTUS)Markov becomes acquainted with Paris' plight, and also guilt.





	a subset of sadness (guilt)

Ladybug and Chat Noir swung their way out of the stadium, leaving Max with Markov in the stadium. Max stood staring at the sky, right where the superheroes had left, before Markov’s little voice jolted him out of his reverie.

“Max? Why are we here?”

“Oh!” Max looked into Markov’s screen eyes, which had narrowed in confusion. “Give me a moment, Markov. We need to get back to school.” Firstly, he went over to pick up all his school things, which had spread out all over the stade after he’d thrown his bag at Robostus’ minions. His mind went on override, thinking of the cheapest and quickest way to the Françoise Dupont. The cabs outside were the quickest answer, but with the money and the time and - Max walked to one of the exits of the stadium, still holding Markov in his hand. The streets seemed mostly devoid of cars - people must have been regrouping from the attack - so Max took out his phone and called up a cab for himself.

Markov remained wordless throughout all this.

And when Max was done, he turned back to the Stade to sit on the floor by one of the entrances. “Now we are waiting for a taxi to take us back to school.”

“Yes.” Markov now gave his little propellers a nudge, and soon he was hovering right over Max’s head. “But how did we end up in this stadium? Does it have to do with this...akumatization?”

Max hesitated, and gave a half-hearted yes.

“And what is that?” Max crossed his hands and rested his forehead against his fingers. “Max?”

“I'm trying to think of a way to summarize. This is a term in which a simple definition won’t suffice.”

“Like a historical term?”

_ Start chronologically, that’s a good starting point.  _ “Yes.”

“Okay.”

Max’s experience with Paris’ newest threat was limited. He’d seen Stoneheart come to crush Kim, then kidnap Mylène, and then the parade of supervillains to come after Stoneheart and threaten the city. He had witnessed all of his friends break, then become a monster. He himself had been turned, and come back. Thinking back to the competition made his stomach turn. It was easy to get lost in the sea of attacks that had assailed the city - as would all citizens be in a battle - and then he found his starting point.  _ Hawkmoth. _

Max took a deep breath. “This school year, a supervillain appeared in Paris.”

Markov gave a little jump back. “A supervillain! There have been no occurrences of supervillains in the history of humanity outside of fiction.”

“It is true, it's unusual. But Hawkmoth is real.” Sometimes people wondered whether the mythical Hawkmoth actually existed, as all the proof the city had was his first attack when he conjured up a field of butterflies to speak for him. And then the chaos would stop, and everything was fine! Could Ladybug and Chat Noir be somehow tricking the city into trusting them? So many futile conspiracies, Max would think. He could attest that he was real.

“On his first appearance he made very clear what he wanted and what he would do to get that.”

“What does he want?”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses.” Markov blinked, unable to tilt his head to indicate curiosity. “They are the jewelry they wear that gives them their powers."

“Could you describe Ladybug and Chat Noir...?”

“The superheroes that appeared not long after Hawkmoth. They told him that he would not scare them into giving up their Miraculouses, and especially not by using the people.”

“How could he use the people to get what he wanted?”

Max winced. Here came the hard part.

“What Hawkmoth does to try get his hands on the Miraculouses is prey on the people. He gets to them when they are...lonely or scared or miserable. When they are in pain. He brainwashes them and turns them into supervillains like him. That is called akumatization.”

“... He did that to me?” Markov blinked again, indicating confusion. “All the sensory data ranging from Principal Damoclès’ confinement to my appearance in the Stade is missing. Could this akumatization have messed with my memory centers?”

Max let his left hand fall, so he could lean his hand on the palm of his right hand. “It is certainly possible. He's done it to a lot of people. Including me."

"You!" Markov’s little eyes turned to exclamation marks. The comical gesture almost made Max smiles - he had to thank Kim for his idea later on.

“Kim, too. Almost the whole class back at school. Almost 500 people in the span of one and half year have been akumatized in the city of Paris.”

“But I don’t feel like a supervillain.”

Max laughed at this - really, Markov’s inclination to let his heart lead rather than his CPU surprised him. “Ladybug and Chat Noir deakumatized you. When someone is akumatized, that villain tries to come after Ladybug and Chat Noir, or cause trouble to bring them out and try fight them, to get their Miraculouses. When they lose, Ladybug does this little thing with her magic yo-yo that turns people back to normal.”

“Ah!” Markov levitated in place in silence as he took in the information. He was designed to have access to major search engines, but Max knew that taking away one conclusion from such a sea of sources was difficult - and he’d given Markov alternative information acquisition procedures. Such as simply asking.

“But why don't I remember it?”

Max shrugged. “No one really remembers being akumatized, actually.”

“Can you describe what happened?”

“... If you would like me to?” Markov gave a little blink, indicating that he would like to very much.

Markov’s progression into a human emotional range had been a surprise from the start. He had first been cynical about its progress, but everyday Max learned new things from Markov, just as Markov learnt new things from him. It dizzied Max to think he might have to introduce Markov to the emotion of guilt.

_ Chronological order! _

“About fifteen minutes after Monsieur Daomclès took you away, all the technology in the class went berserk. The pads magically floated off our hands and started chasing us out of the class.”

“Pads are not equipped with anti-gravity technology.”

Max laughed again.

“It was akuma magic, Markov. When Hawkmoth turns people into akumas, they receive powers of their own, extraordinary powers. To control the weather or super strength. Or influence all the technology in Paris.”

“That is what I had?” Markov’s eyes switched to a larger size of dot.

“The pads chased us into the foyer,” continued Max. “There was a mecha built out of several cars and tractors there - and it grabbed me and put me in the passenger seat at the head. You were driving.”

Markov approached Max with hesitation. “But why did I take you? Did I need you to get Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses?”

“No...that was...because you missed me.” It was a little hard to be touched by the gesture after Robostus had almost killed Madame Mendeleiev with the same fell swoop. His teacher’s screams rang in his head when he lingered on the memory.

“And - and then the mecha took us all the way to this stadium. It was to trap Ladybug and Chat Noir. You almost...succeeded.”

Markov then turned back to the Stade in wonder, possible imagining the events on his own. “May I have a more detailed account?”

Max sighed.  _ Chronological order, Max.  _ “I tried to stop you. That was enough to get Ladybug and Chat Noir back on their feet. And then they fought you and deakumatized you.”

“Ah!” His tone indicated that he hadn’t received the detail he expected from Max’s account. “That doesn't sound very bad.”

“No, everything is fine now.”  _ Thankfully enough. _

Max kept looking at his watch, but ten minutes in, his driver hadn’t arrived. Usually the tardiness would bother him, but today of all days...but then again, were there any days left when Hawkmoth wasn’t attacking Paris?

Max had taken Markov’s silence for granted until it hit him that his silence might not be the same pensieve state humans fell into - he was a robot, so he really couldn’t be assuming that he’d just stay in stand-by and -

“Markov, are you looking up the news?”

Markov ducked from the shame, as if hanging his head. “... yes.”

“Markov. Don't do that. It's bad for you.”

“A lot of people were hurt by the erratic technology. I tried to turn technology against humanity!”

“Markov.” Max became a little sterner. “You did not do that."

“But you said I did.”

Max sighed, then stood to walk to Markov’s side. "Well, yes, but you were not yourself! No one is themselves while Hawkmoth has them akumatized. And bad things happen when akumas attack. But it is not your fault. It is not the akumatized victim's fault.”

Max then held on to Ladybug’s parting words to speak again. “We are all in pain at some moment in our lives.” Max cleared his throat, then pointed to the stade frantically. “Here! Marinette managed to beat me in minutes for the spot at a competition fighting UMS III. I was mad about that! I had worked so hard and I was good. I asked myself, how could she be better? It was wrong for me to be that bitter, but why would I not be hurt? I cared about that competition. Hawkmoth used something as small as that to…” Max then took a deep breath, then cupped his head in his hands.

“To do what?” asked Markov quietly.

“M - my akuma form tried to lure Ladybug and Chat Noir to fight by killing people. For points. Like a videogame. I'd - zap them - they would vanish - and my videogame mecha would level up, so I could fight Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“What…?”

“And I was looking for Marinette, to zap her! To kill her!” His voice was now shaking, a visible enough disturbance to tip Markov off. His little robot eyes shrunk.

“You are not a killer, Max.”

Max sighed.

“I know. And you’re not a supervillain either. It took me a while to tell myself that. Don’t take too long to realize it yourself.”

Markov’s propeller began beating at slower intervals, lowering him - Max held out his hands to catch Markov just in case. The little robot fell - as if he needed support, even when his battery should have been fully charged.

Markov’s progress astounded Max every day.

“This is guilt,” stated Markov, after a brief search into his search engine of choice.

“Yes.” Max smiled. “A subset of sadness. It is good that you’re feeling it - but it’s not good to stay there very long.”

And then a cab began honking at him from the exit of the stade, just in time for them -

“Do I have to go back to the bag?”

Max looked at Markov for a moment, but it did not take long for him to come to his senses. “No, you can follow me to the cab.”

“But if we’re going back to the school…?”

Max shook his head, and led the way to the cab with a smile. “No, we’re going home.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> anyway it's such a sin that no one has made any fic with Markov so far so I'm here delivering
> 
> Robostus has been my favorite episode of the show for sixteen different reasons, but one was that I fell in love with the tiny robot and I wanted to give him love.  ~~also I may in general be obsessed with post-akumatization guilt and I needed to explore that with Markov thanks bye~~


End file.
